Declaration for Patient Safety

Promoting safer health systems and high quality standards across Europe.

About the Declaration

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that patient harm is the 14th leading cause of the global disease burden, equivalent to illnesses such as tuberculosis and malaria. In some European countries, the burden of patient harm is comparable to that of chronic diseases (e.g. multiple sclerosis and some types of cancer). Statistical projections show that strategies to reduce the rate of adverse events in the European Union alone would lead to the prevention of more than 750,000 harm-inflicting medical errors per year, leading in turn to over 3.2 million fewer days of hospitalisation, 260,000 fewer incidents of permanent disability, and 95,000 fewer deaths per year.

Promote a blame-free safety culture

• Prioritising patient safety in the political agenda on health;
• Annual report on the status of patient safety before national Parliaments;
• Effective actions to promote safety culture in all health settings;
• Consistent and blame-free reporting systems across the EU for healthcare harms and risk monitoring.

Surveillance systems and data availability

• A European scheme to consolidate and share science-based data regarding adverse events in order to make them more comparable;
• Developing tailor-made patient safety indicators across the EU;
• Regular knowledge exchanges among Member States and EU institutions for shaping effective policies and practices.

Guarantee the right to personalised treatment

• Increased use of approved treatments and innovative technologies according to the medical need of patients and empirical advice of practitioners;
• Uptake of innovative technologies and treatments that work best for individual patients in order to prevent or minimise adverse events and wrongly administered treatment;
• More mutual learning initiatives aiming at identifying related clinical best practices.

Respect the right to information

• Clear guidelines at national level on patient informed consent for all treatments to allow patients to make informed decisions based on professional advice;
• Measures to facilitate patients’ access to their medical dossiers and clarify their legal rights in case of adverse events.

Increase resources for healthcare staffing

• Proper working conditions for all healthcare professionals, who are essential for reducing risks for patients and promoting a culture of continuous learning on patient safety;
• Patient safety fully included in the standard training of health professionals;
• Effective support and training to ensure the safest use of new medical technologies.

About Health First Europe

Health First Europe (HFE) is a non-profit organization bringing together patients, healthcare workers, academics and medical technology industry. HFE has consistently been part of building policy aimed at better patient safety in the EU. HFE’s key priority is to promote the development of a truly patient-centred healthcare, a system where all European citizens could benefit from the best medical treatments available. As part of that effort HFE has created a set of recommendations, sponsored numerous events and developed patient safety indicators.

About the Declaration sponsorship: This project was made possible thanks to unrestricted grants from Johnson and Johnson, BD, DocMorris.

Who has signed already?

European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients' Associations

EBC - The European Brain Council

CPME - Standing Committee of European Doctors

MEP José Inácio Faria (EPP, Portugal)

MEP Alojz Peterle (EPP, Slovenia)

EPUAP - European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel

ER-WCPT - European Region of the World Confederation for Physiotherapy